defeat as temporary soldiers in her service. Above all we are enjoined to be patient with brother-men who see not as we see. No true man deliberately serves error. Yet an imprudent defender of truth may stir up dust-clouds of stubbornness and self-conceit, eclipsing the sun of truth. Not that we should conquer is the purpose of our being, but that we should, to the best of our ability, patiently, resolutely, trustfully, aid the cause intrusted to our keeping. After us there will be others.

VICES OF CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH

BY J. W. DINSMORE, SUPERINTENDENT OF CITY SCHOOLS, BEATRICE, NEB. Vice in itself is any transgression of morality. In the individual it is a conscious and habitual transgression. One may have yielded to temptation and not be "vicious." Those only are so catalogued who have acquired habits of evil.

DECEIT

Perhaps the first vice to appear in a child is deceit. It is observable at a very early age, and is practiced consciously at less than two years. Little surreptitious acts, known to be forbidden, are performed either maliciously or defiantly, the offender keenly watching the mood of mother or nurse, and judging thereby of his own safety. So spontaneous and natural are these little acts of deception that they savor strongly of heredity. But it is doubtful if the amount inherited would lead to serious results. If the child should find, as he developed, that deceit was not practiced by parents and friends, there is little doubt but that he would give it up.

But where older children practice it upon their smaller companions, their parents, and each other, the habit will very readily be acquired by the child. The mother sometimes sets an example of deceit by effusively greeting a caller whom the children know to be unwelcome, or apologiz ing for a state of things that is quite the usual order. In school it is most in evidence in examinations, reading forbidden literature, passing notes, eating sweetmeats, and the like.

LYING

Closely connected with, and usually accompanying, deceit is lying. This vice may be learned in a variety of ways, but in the great majority of cases it is acquired by observation and imitation.

and

As rewards and punishments are meted out by very many parents teachers, skillful lying is one of the most valuable accomplishments a child can possess,

The great difference in children in respect to veracity is partly due to the nature of the child and partly to training and environment. Some are so sensitive that the least deviation from truth is painful to them, while others become adepts at lying, and appear indifferent as to its results. In spite of the prevalence of this vice, it is held in poor repute everywhere. No greater insult can be given than to call another a liar. A man may stand a torrent of abuse, until "the lie" is given, when he flies into an ungovernable rage. Probably three-fourths of the fights of boys occur because of "the lie" being passed. From this it seems that truth-telling is more universally held in high esteem than any other

virtue.

Lying arises from three general causes: first, from a strong imagination, like that of Arthur Bonnicastle, who was guilty of the grossest fabrications, in which he usually played the rôle of hero; second, for gain, as in trade and barter; and, third, to escape punishment or disgrace. Most children have a weakness in one or more of these directions, and should be treated according to the offense. The best remedy in all cases is kindness and sincerity on the part of parents and teachers. As a rule, both children and grown people tell the truth to those whom they love and respect. When parents make promises to their children without being careful to fulfill them, or threats which are not carried out, they lose the confidence, and merit the just contempt, of the little ones.

STEALING

Where deceit and lying abound, one is not surprised to find stealing. The instinct of ownership is one of the endowments of the race, and appears in the child in the second year of life. It is this sense that prompts him to appropriate whatever seems desirable without any consciousness of wrong. It is not likely that a child of himself would see any harm in stealing short of maturity. Uncivilized countries regard this vice as a virtue, and some civilized countries look upon it not unfavorably. The Spartans considered skillful thieving a virtue and an accomplishment. It was part of a boy's education. He was punished for it only when done in a bungling fashion. In quite modern times conquering nations have not hesitated to appropriate the possessions of their vanquished opponents. Napoleon in this way enriched France, and in fact. this kind of stealing has not been wholly abandoned by any great nation. If we believe the child to be the exponent of the race, we shall not be surprised if he shows a disposition to seize and appropriate by force or cunning whatever strikes his fancy. But in favorable surroundings the tendency is soon overcome, and only a comparatively small number of children can be classed as thieves. This is true in all good communities, but among the ignorant and poverty-stricken it is quite prevalent, while in the slums of the cities it is the rule rather than the exception.

Stealing appears to be the most prevalent of all criminal vices. Many more than one-half of all the convicts in the state penitentiaries and of reform and industrial schools have been sentenced for some kind of stealing. This is not true of female offenders. Statistics show that most of the latter have been sentenced for crimes against society-begging, prostitution, and vagrancy. The major part of thieving done by juveniles is not from choice, but necessity. Idle and drunken parents send their children out to beg or steal, as opportunity offers. The child knows no moral distinction between the two. If he goes back empty-handed, he is punished. His lot is a hard one. He is a stranger to love, kindness, sympathy, and comfort. He is underfed, miserably clad, neglected, abused. His parents and associates are his enemies, and he has no claims upon society. He is an outcast. All such should be considered as unfortunates rather than criminals. They are the inevitable result of our twisted social fabric. They must be dealt with, not to protect society, but for their own sakes. So long as we look upon them mainly as a menace to society, our hand is against them and theirs against us. They should not be punished, but helped, loved, encouraged. Where a specimen of this sort is treated cruelly he is cruel. Where treated with indifference he is indifferent. When he shall be treated with love, will he not be lovely, for is not love the greatest power in the world? "Love never fails."

The industrial school, by means of kindness and regular habits, is able to reclaim a large proportion of those intrusted to its care, but only a few out of the great army of children who are daily becoming thieves are so reached.

GAMBLING

Gambling is recognized as one of the greatest evils of the age, yet one looks for it in vain as the cause of imprisonment in penal institutions. Laws against gambling are for the most part dead letters. The reason is in the nature of the vice itself. The man who loses his money at the gaming table cannot prosecute one who robs him, because he is himself equally guilty. The wife has no redress when her husband loses his all without involving him in the punishment, as the law makes no distinction between the winner and the loser. Local laws, imposing fines and terms in jail, check but little this growing evil. All this is unfortunate, for gambling is more seductive in its nature, and far more destructive to morality, than theft. The respectability of gaming, the coolness and keenness of intellect required, the element of danger, the daring, the applause incident to winning, the possibility of large gains and a life of ease, all go to make the life of the gambler a fascinating one. It is one of the most popular evils in the land. Men who call themselves good and moral citizens bet their money on elections, horse races, ball games,

boat races, anything in short that offers a chance for winning. Boys, with their keen interest in whatever men do, think it manly to follow their example. Playing marbles for keeps is one of the earliest forms of gambling. The difference between it and other forms is one of quantity and not of quality. Boys have marbles, men have money. Each stake what they have to win or lose. From marbles for keeps it is matching pennies, then the nickel in the slot, then games of chance, and the habit is formed.

Boys thus learning to gamble lose all interest in school and books, play truant and manufacture lies to deceive parents and teachers. It leads to sabbath-breaking, and often to chewing and smoking, in order to be more manly and abandoned. Add wine and the prostitute, and the boy is a true "sport."

Thousands of boys every year go thru this experience. Many look eagerly forward to the time when they can indulge freely in sporting amusements. They read the sporting news with all-absorbing interest. They are more familiar with the champions of the wheel, the diamond, and the ring than with the characters of history. Their admiration for some famous pugilist amounts almost to adoration. If the teacher could arouse the same interest in the characters of history, she would never have cause to complain. Even local sports have a large circle of admirers among the boys. How the evil shall be met is a problem burning for solution.

Kindred to this and the vices already discussed are

VULGARITY AND IMPURITY

The minds of children, especially boys, are everywhere poisoned by impure, vulgar, and obscene words and expressions. Wherever idlers congregate bad language is used, vulgar stories are told, evil thoughts find expression, the most sacred relations are profaned. The vice of vulgarity is so common that a boy can scarcely be sent to a neighboring grocery without danger of contamination. In barber shops, livery stables, railroad stations, and such places boys get their education in profanity and obscenity. In looking over the occupations of convicts in penitentiaries one is struck with the great number of barbers. The cause is manifest. Almost every barber shop keeps a stock of sensational literature, and pictures of pugilists and actors in tights on the wall. Frequenters and customers thus find the way open for gossiping upon the latest sporting news or sensational stories. So tainted is the moral atmosphere that there is scarcely a boy thirteen years of age who is not familiar with the vilest street terms.

Professor De Motte, in his lecture on "The Harp of the Senses," says a girl may travel with her mother from New York to San Francisco and back and never hear a vile word, but a boy cannot travel with his father

for a single day without being exposed to contaminating language; and he demands that society shall give the boy the same chance to be pure that his sister enjoys.

Touching impurity, I cannot do better than to quote from the letters of men high in authority. Regent E. von Forell, chaplain of the State Industrial School for Boys at Kearney, Neb., says: "It may not be generally known, but it is true, that there is a systematic recruiting of boys and girls to take the place of those so far gone in disease that they can no longer give their bodies to earn their bread. Boys are induced to enter dens of iniquity and are led astray long before puberty, and when once entrapped are used to persuade other boys to enter." Regent Forell calls prostitution the greatest sin of the age, and says the evil of tobacco and alcohol appears like a joke when compared with it.

Josiah Strong, of New York city, writes as follows:

In a Pennsylvania city I was assured that girls thirteen or fourteen years old solicited traveling men on the streets, taking them to their own fathers' houses. The corruption is widespread. The active cause of this condition of things would seem to be the extensive distribution of obscene literature, both through the mails and by hand. Men fill their grips and pockets, step onto platforms when the train stops, with a quick eye pick out the young fellows of the right sort, put into their hands specimen pages which give information how to get more, tell them to pass it around, jump onto the train, and are gone. Sometimes they distribute the poison to the school children on the play. grounds.

Anthony Comstock, secretary of the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice, considers licentiousness and self-abuse the greatest vices of childhood and youth. He says: "The overwrought stories of social vices, as told in the daily papers, the baneful illustrations of the weekly illustrated criminal papers, the exciting and pernicious dime novel, the disgusting displays of bill-boards, fences, and sides of buildings, all bid for the destruction of the purity of childhood and youth. The results are seen on every hand. The harvest of this impure seed-sowing is a seared conscience, a broken constitution, mental, moral, and spiritual death."

THE AGE OF CRIMINALS

Statistics of prisons and reform schools, while they show the age of delinquents at conviction, do not tell us when these unfortunates began their career of crime. In a great majority of cases they are habitual offenders before being brought to justice. The criminal instinct shows itself at a very early period in life. A large proportion of the habitual criminals are on record as law-breakers before they are out of their teens. The age of females entering upon a life of crime is greater in proportion to the number than that of males. This is partly due to their better protection at home and partly to the kind of crimes committed by them. According to Morrison, 26 children in every 100,000 of the juvenile population under the age of twelve were